COMPILED BY CATHERINE CHETWYND
IN FOCUS
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THE SPACESHIP SUPPLIER George Whitesides chief executive, Virgin Galactic
ALL OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES are planetary and travelling into space gives a different perspective on those challenges and enables us to solve them collaboratively; it is very exciting to share that with many people around the world. With SpaceShipTwo – the model we are building now – we aspire to test and demonstrate all the technologies required for moving space flight from single missions to high reusability. We want to bring aspects of airline operations to space flight. If we can show that is possible, it is a precursor for high-speed intercontinental travel. Our flight in December was a huge milestone when we made it up to space and achieved astronaut wings for our two pilots. It’s an honour we hope to be able to share with our customers when we begin com- mercial service. We are getting close now but I’d hesitate to give specific projections. More than 600 people have put down more than half the ticket price of $250,000. Exclusive interview, p44-45
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THE AIRLINE Yuki Horie space project manager, ANA HD Digital Design Lab
ANA HOLDINGS IS CURRENTLY WORKING with PD Aerospace on a manned rocket that can take off and land like an aircraft, with minimal impact on the human body. In September, in collaboration with JAXA, we launched our AVATAR X programme which is designed to leverage robotic avatar technology to help advance space exploration. It can be operated from a remote location and, unlike traditional tele-operated systems, such as rovers, avatars will transport human senses and skills to a remote location giving the operator the experience of being there. We believe our research will lead to avatars being used as a new form of instantaneous physical transportation and will enable those who are unable to use traditional forms of transport to teleport their senses, presence and skills to another location. This technology will boost our ability to bring resources to space when needed and open up a new frontier for space travel and entertainment.
buyingbusinesstravel.com
SIGHT
The boundaries between space
flight and aviation are blurring,
with sub-orbital
travel becoming a potential saviour for long-haul
travel. But “are we nearly there yet”?
2 4
THE SPACE HOTEL MANUFACTURER Frank Bunger chief executive and founder, Orion Span
IT IS AN EXCITING PROSPECT that adapted spacecraft could be flown between London and Sydney, and the journey would take just two-and-a-half hours, but the com- plexity of this is greater than it looks. For example, launching a traditional rocket near a city is risky because downrange requirements are over an ocean in case anything goes wrong. However, a space- plane solution, like Virgin Galactic, would work. I expect to see this type of flight in the next five years. A commercial flight to Orion Span’s luxury space hotel Aurora Station is an increasing possibility. In the next year, two commercial providers will come online. The trip cost starts at US$9.5 million per person. Meanwhile, commer- cial air travel stands to benefit from space exploration. For example, food in space has similar requirements to air travel – no open flames of any sort. We’ve made further advancements in foods being freeze-dried and reconstituted, while still tasting good.
THE CONSULTANT Tom Stone director and owner, Sirius Management
LESSONS ABOUT SPACE TRAVEL that can be applied to commercial travel demonstrate that it takes longer to develop than people imagine and that scale is important. It’s probably more about what has been learned about commercial travel that can be applied to space travel. It seems very likely that adapted spacecraft could be flown between London and Sydney in just two-and-a-half hours, as the technology for hypersonic travel has existed since 1945. When that happens is harder to quantify, but there would be a market for this, depending on the cost ratio for hypersonic to subsonic (a little like the premium paid by travellers to use Concorde when it launched). A commercial flight to the Moon denotes that passengers will be flying there for business, so that seems unlikely at the moment. Given the current cost of travelling to the Interna- tional Space Station (around US$75 million per head), it is probably a long way off.
2019 MARCH/APRIL 7
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